Encapsulation (computer programming): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:02, 20 April 2022

Revision as of 09:56, 12 July 2022

Line 1:

{{Short description|Bundling of data}}

In [[object-oriented programming]] (OOP), '''encapsulation''' refers to the bundling of data with the methods that operate on that data,. orOften that definition is misconstrued to mean that the restrictingdata ofis directsomehow accesshidden. toIn someJava, ofyou ancan object'shave componentsencapsulated data that is not hidden at all. So '''encapsulation''' and '''hidding''' are not the same and have different meaning! <ref name="Rogers01" /> Encapsulation is used to hide the values or state of a structured data object inside a [[Class (computer programming)|class]], preventing direct access to them by clients in a way that could expose hidden implementation details or violate state invariance maintained by the methods.

Publicly accessible methods are generally provided in the class to access or modify the state more abstractly. In practice sometimes methods (so-called [[Mutator method|"getters" and "setters"]]) are provided to access the values indirectly, but, although not necessarily a violation of abstract encapsulation, they are often considered a sign-post of potentially poor object-oriented programming (OOP) design practice <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.infoworld.com/article/2073723/why-getter-and-setter-methods-are-evil.html |title=Why Getter and Setter methods are evil |last=Holub |first=Allen |publisher=JavaWorld |date=September 5, 2003 |website=Info World |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729073721/https://www.infoworld.com/article/2073723/why-getter-and-setter-methods-are-evil.html |access-date=January 17, 2021|archive-date=2020-07-29 }}</ref> (an [[Anti-pattern]]).